We will always have rats–they are resilient, resourceful creatures!
The key to keeping them from bothering you is to practice good housekeeping. Don’t let fallen bird seed or pet food collect in your yard, garage, or home. Pick up trash on your street. Exclude openings in your home. Remove ivy, which is an excellent “B&B” for rats.
Would you believe that a rat can:
- squeeze through a pipe the width of a quarter
- scale a brick wall, straight up
- fall off a five-story building and land safely on its feet
- rear up on its hind legs and box with its front paws
- get flushed down a toilet and live
- climb up a drainpipe into a toilet bowl
- gnaw through bone, wood, a sheet of iron a half inch thick, or a slab of concrete four inches thick
- “speak” to other rats 40-50 feet away with high-pitched sounds human ears cannot detect
- paddle for 1/2 a mile in the ocean; rats love water! They also dive into streams to catch fish, using their tails to mimic worms.
(Facts about rats from the book “Oh, Rats! The Story Of Rats and People” by Albert Marrin.)
